[Ukfreebsd] late May *BSD meet in London

[Robert N. M. Watson]

On 11 May 2010, at 07:35, Pete French wrote:

>> Mostly I just wonder if anyone in London uses BSD anymore. :)
> 
> We do - got two farms out at Slough, and a third in Louisiana, all
> masterminded from a little office in Angel :-) Having said that though,
> if anyone has any jobs going doing BSD in London then I would be
> very interested in shifting right now...
> 
> It's curious how many of us can't make pub meets anymore - I am wondering if
> it's because we've all being doing BSD a long time, so we've all got to a
> certain age where it's less easy to slip out in the evenings (i.e. partners
> and families and other such commitments). Less youthful types around here
> maybe ... they are all off doing the penguin thing?


Everyone is too busy tweeting to get together in person these days :-).

I wonder if the issue isn't actually operating systems themselves: lots of cool and interesting stuff is going on, but open source OS's are now reaching the level of maturity/complexity that it is difficult for new folks to jump in. If you want semi-mature software where you can find a niche to contribute to, it's 4-5 layers higher in the stack these days.

More generally: I'm worried that the UK is under-represented in open source programmes like Google Summer of Code. Is it that our holiday schedules align poorly with their application period (which is targeted at the US undergraduate schedule in practice)? Is it that our most qualified computer science students are looking for their summer positions in December, not April? Or is it that UK undergraduates just aren't as excited about open source this year as they were, say, five years ago?

(Or is it that they all go into banking these days...)

Robert